Previews

Madden NFL 07

Your career begins with finding an agent, conducting interviews, and signing up for the NFL combine in order to show off your talents for the upcoming draft. Perform well at the mini-camp games, and your stats will improve. My halfback was drafted in the third round by the Jets, which suited me fine. It wasn't likely that my player would usurp the position of one of the marquee guys like Reggie Bush or Lendale White, but the potential is there for rebuilding with the Jets. D'Brickashaw Ferguson at left tackle will be a stud, while the in-game version of Curtis Martin is likely in his last year. (The real life Curtis Martin is sidelined with a knee injury and may retire before the season even begins.) Pleased with the situation (although not necessarily at quarterback, as Chad Pennington has seen better days), I then proceeded to pull Curtis Martin straight out of the starting lineup and established myself as the starter. Sure, it was a cheap way to earn the job, but I wouldn't let Coach Mangini and the Jets down.

The same off-the-field elements are here once again, like taking on movie roles, conducting trash-talking (or humble) interviews and earning product endorsements. If you sim through practices and games, you don't have to miss any crucial events either, a flaw in last year's Superstar mode. The game will end any simulations in progress if an unscheduled event pops up, so you won't miss any important event in your career.

The biggest change to this updated superstar mode comes when selecting a defensive player or a wide receiver, though. You never pick plays, since that's up to the coach, and you'll be playing as your athlete at all times that he's on the field. On offense with a wide receiver character, for example, you'll run your routes, with a new camera perspective that zooms in and puts you at the center of the action, with context-sensitive controls so you can make quick cuts on your route. Even if the ball isn't thrown to you, like on a running play, for instance, you'll still be charged with running the plays as they're intended. On long sweeps, your WR still has a key role, laying a block on your opposing cornerback. If you do this well, and can pancake the guy, you're in prime position to lead the way for a big-time run, especially if you can lay a second block on an opposing safety. As a halfback, you'll spend approximately half your plays blocking for your quarterback, and as many real-life NFL halfbacks have learned, your team won't do well unless you can excel at protection as well as running the ball yourself. It feels pretty great to hold off an incoming pass rusher like Julius Peppers or Dwight Freeney as your QB nails a long pass to your streaking wide receiver, and this sort of gameplay feels much more like real football than anything in Madden's past. For some players, this mode may supplant the desire to ever play the standard "control the guy with the ball" style of game ever again.

The differences between the Xbox and PS2 versions of the game should be minimal, as they have the same set of features, identical soundtracks, and similar visuals, with a slight upgrade for the Xbox version. The most noticeable feature is the decreased load times you'll find with the Xbox version, which helps a lot if you enable autosave for your NFL Superstar career. The simulation times also appear to be a lot shorter when the game is running on the Xbox. Load times in a PlayStation 2 game should be no surprise to owners, but it still needs to be mentioned.

Madden NFL 07 is bringing its A-game this year, pulling out all the stops. The gameplay seems to be more feature-rich and fun to play than any version we've seen thus far, and it has two well-implemented options in the franchise and NFL Superstar: Hall of Fame modes that should keep players going full steam well into the off-season. It's a shame that there's a lifespan on these games of exactly one season. Who still plays Madden '04, after all? It's interesting to see that the year that John Madden is inducted into the Hall of Fame may well be the year that the Madden franchise takes that next step. We'll be sure to give you the lowdown on how this game turns out when it ships to retail later this month.